Recording Singer Songwriter 1 Mic

In this video, Fab Dupont demonstrates how to record the great Julian Peterson with only one microphone. Thing is, Julian does not only sing, he can also play the guitar at the same time. This tutorial will show you how to deal with the placement of the mic in order to obtain proper balance between guitar and vocals. Not that easy.

This video also explores the influence of the acoustic environment, as well as the choice of the microphone pattern on the quality of the recording. Should one use gobos? How does one avoid classic tonal issues with the vocals ? What difference does an omni-directionnal pattern make on the shape of the final sound? These questions and many more are answered in detail in this 23 minute condensed crash course on minimalism in micing.

00:00:12Techniques discussed in this video
will also work
if you do not have
Julian Peterson,
but I promise you're gonna wish
you had Julian Peterson
after this video.

00:00:21The whole point is to find a good
balance between the vocal and the guitar,
and that's hard to do, you have
one microphone and two sources.

00:00:27So we're gonna experiment
with placement,
environment, and maybe patterns
on the microphone
to figure out how to make it happen.
Here we go!
While Daniel is in the Control Room
patching,
and adjusting gain on
the 2108 Universal Audio preamp
we're gonna be using for this exercise,
I will be in here setting up
the Lauten Audio Clarion microphone,
a very affordable, yet lovely microphone
that I'm gonna use on Julian.

00:00:50I'm gonna throw it somewhere that
I think makes sense.

00:00:53Let's see if it works.

00:00:55Alright, so I'm gonna put
the microphone
where my gut tells me it should go,
which is usually in front of the singer.

00:01:03I'm putting it about half a meter
away from the singer,
which is about a couple of feet
if you're into that kind of stuff.

00:01:08For the height, I would aim for
somewhere in between
the guitar and the vocal to try and
have a balance between the two of them.

00:01:15I don't know if
this is gonna sound good,
we're gonna figure it out,
and then we'll adjust. Here we go!
Ok! So that didn't sound bad,
but didn't sound great either.

00:02:29I would like it to be more immersive,
I would like it to be like if I was
really close to the singer.

00:02:34This sounds more like a documentary,
or an older recording
from the 50s or 60s where they put
a microphone far away,
and they got kind of like
a distance recording.

00:02:42I wanna be in the action,
very close.

00:02:45So it would make a lot of sense that
if I wanted to sound closer,
I would move the microphone,
well... closer! Let's try that!
Here we go!
It's not that complicated,
I'm just gonna move it.

00:02:56Still try to adjust the balance.

00:02:59Maybe I'll move it up a little bit,
and angle it down a little bit,
so that I can have the presence,
but still have some guitar.

00:03:06Let's try this,
like this.

00:03:08That's cool!
So now, I'm about...

00:03:1125 centimeters, or 2.5 elbows,
if you're into that system,
and I angled it down,
because if I left it straight,
we'd have a lot of vocals,
and not a lot of guitar.

00:03:21Angling it down should bring
more guitar into the picture.

00:03:24At least, that's the theory,
let's see how it sounds!
So that pretty much did
what we wanted it to do,
it's a lot closer to the singer,
a lot more immersive,
a lot less room,
almost no room left.

00:04:38Some problems appear though,
you probably noticed that the guitar
is overpowered by the vocal now,
and also that the vocal
has a wierder sound,
it's not as natural, it's got
lots of "KK!" and T's, and S's.

00:04:52The reason for that
is there's no more air
in between the singer
and the microphone.

00:04:57Air is a great compressor,
it's natural compression,
it slows things down.

00:05:01If you have less air,
especially without a pop filter,
if you have less air,
everything that's percussive
is gonna be enhanced by the microphone
and make that sound,
then you'll have to fix it in the mix,
so I don't really dig that.

00:05:13How do you feel about
the microphone being here, Julian?
Well, definitely it affects
my performance,
especially when I have cans on.
I can hear my voice pretty loudly,
so it affects the way I breathe
and sing,
and so it definitely is a factor.

00:05:32Ok! We don't want that. So I'm gonna
change the position of the microphone
to somewhere maybe less intuitive,
but that may work, you never know!
Here we go!
So I'm gonna put it to the side here,
and aim it at Julian.

00:05:45I'm gonna make it maybe
a little lower, and straighten it out.

00:05:50The point here is that I'm no longer
straight into his line.

00:05:52I'm gonna ask Julian to sing straight,
not sing to the microphone.

00:05:55Some singers have a hard time
with that,
but most get used to it rapidly.

00:05:59If you do this,
you're gonna get presence.

00:06:03You're not gonna get
the direct blow of air,
so you're not gonna get
as many S's or T's,
and you're gonna get more of a balance
between the two of them,
by changing where you put it here.

00:06:12So I'm gonna try this.

00:06:14Let's see how it goes.
Yeah! I like that.

00:07:20Great! I think this is a good example
of the difference that a couple
of inches can make.

00:07:26Some people might think that
maybe there's not enough guitar,
and too much vocal,
and they're probably right!
And I don't care, because I really
like the tone of the vocal.

00:07:34It's very present,
and it's very natural, it doesn't
sound recorded,
it sounds like exactly
what I'm hearing in the room.

00:07:40And that, for me, is great!
So, in the spirit of having a balance
between the two of them,
did we completely succeed?
It's good enough for me, but I'm really,
really happy with the vocal sound.

00:07:52If you wanna try moving the microphone
to get a little more guitar, you can,
but what I'd like to do right now
is leave everything in place,
and take advantage of the fact
that our back wall is really a gobo.

00:08:04To summarize,
if you put your microphone far away,
you get the benefit of
the air compression,
and also the fact that the sound
has the time to dissipate.

00:08:14So what the microphone gets
is more of an ensemble,
and more of a mix of the two sources.

00:08:19But you get a lot of room,
and you don't get a lot of bottom,
or a lot of presence.

00:08:23So it's a compromise.

00:08:25If you move closer,
you get the presence,
but you start getting problems:
S's, T's, dynamic jump-out stuff,
and also it's really hard to balance
between the two instruments.

00:08:35If you move it to the side
and angle it,
you're able to alleviate
some of the S's and T's problems,
and the dynamic problems,
you'll also have more leeway
as far as the angle, to be able
to get more guitar, or less guitar.

00:08:49If they don't, just slap'em!
What I'd like to do now is take those
gobos and move them out of the way.

00:08:55I'm not gonna do it, I'm too lazy,
somebody's gonna do it,
but the point here is to show you
the difference it makes.

00:09:02We're gonna keep the singer
and the microphone
exactly in the same position.

00:09:05We're just gonna change the room
around that,
and see the difference it makes.

00:10:12That's interesting. A lot more subtle,
but very interesting,
and maybe a little bit confusing.

00:10:18That's what we're here for.
Do I confuse you? No. Yes?
No? No!
If you payed attention,
moving the gobos away
changed the sound of the bottom
of the vocal, and the guitar.

00:10:29They actually became a little leaner,
maybe more like what I'm hearing
in the room, less recorded if you will.

00:10:36Do I like that?
It's a question of taste.

00:10:38As a purist, I like something that
sounds like it hasn't been recorded.

00:10:41In this particular case, I kind of dug
the slightly warmer tone.

00:10:46It's really a question of your choice.

00:10:48In summary, if I record Julian
in a big room,
with a microphone up close,
I get an opened sound,
but then I get balance problems, because
of the proximity of the microphone.

00:10:57If I record him in a slightly smaller
room by using gobos for example,
I can move the microphone back
a little bit, but there's a compromise.

00:11:04I can't move too far back, otherwise
I'm starting to get to hear
the sound of the room,
and I lose some of the presence.

00:11:10So, to push that experiment further,
I'd like to record Julian
in a really small room, and that's why
we're gonna put him
in the aquarium behind me.

00:11:18So I'm gonna try and put the microphone
in sensibly the same position
as it was in out there,
vis-à-vis Julian, making sure that...

00:11:29I'm sort of matching it.

00:11:31Alright! That sounds about right.

00:11:33Don't forget to not sing
in the microphone,
but in front of you,
if you don't wanna get slapped.

00:12:40Cool!
I like this, because the smaller room
emphasizes the guitar.

00:12:46Smaller rooms tend to emphasize
the low frequencies.

00:12:48Since Julian's voice is quite high,
it's the guitar that's getting
the benefit,
and the voice is pretty much the same.
Maybe a little more confined,
a little denser, from the small
environment, but not that bad.

00:13:00So I like that, it's a good balance.

00:13:02It's giving me ideas.

00:13:04Since the reflections
of the guitar in the room
are making the guitar
louder into the mix,
how about we switch the microphone
to Omni, and see what it does?
An Omni microphone will pick up
the entire room,
as opposed to
just what's in front of it.

00:13:16Right now, we're in Cardio,
we're gonna switch to Omni.

00:13:18Julian, would you be kind enough
to switch to Omni please?
It's the one that's with a circle.

00:13:23- Sure!
- Thank you!
Julian, you're ready?
- Yes sir!
- One more time!
Ok!
I like this, because the Omni
microphone actually brings up
more of the reflections of the guitar
in the room, and it sounds good,
and it makes more of a balance
between the vocal and the guitar,
without ruining the vocal sound.

00:14:45I think it's the best recording
we've had today.

00:14:47So what I think we should do
is go back to the Puremix Control Room
and compare everything
to make sure that I'm right.

00:14:53This concludes your portion
of our program today, Julian.

00:14:56Thank you very much!
Thanks for having me!
- Thank you Daniel.
- You're welcome!
Here we go!
Back in the studio, let's listen
to what we just did, and compare.

00:15:06First, we put the microphone
far away from the singer.

00:15:09We got a good balance,
but then we heard the room.

00:15:13If you have a good room,
that may be good.

00:15:15If you like that sound, that may
be good. It sounded like this.

00:15:27Now, if you don't like the sound
of your room,
or if you don't want
that distance vibe,
then you move closer.
So we did this.

00:15:43Obviously much closer,
but we're starting to get problems
like "Come Into",
and also, check this out...

00:15:54"Stuck inside, stuck inside"
really peaky and annoying.

00:15:58For comparison,
far away it sounds like this.

00:16:04You don't have that energy
sticking out, but you're far away.

00:16:07So that's why we tried
the side trick.

00:16:09The side trick lets you
keep the presence,
the proximity effect,
but alleviate some of the S's and T's,
and P's, and problems like that.

00:16:17Also it keeps a nice balance
for the guitar. Check it out!
Smooth.

00:16:28As opposed to...

00:16:38It's definitely more aggressive
when up close in the middle.

00:16:41The thing that's interesting
is once you have the side trick,
and you kind of like the balance
and the overall tone of the thing,
you can play
with the placement in the room
to change the amount of guitar
versus vocal in your balance.

00:16:52The thing that's fun is that
if you compare the sound of the vocal
with the side trick, with gobos,
with no gobos, and even in the booth,
check it out,
it's pretty much the same sound.

00:17:02Or...

00:17:06Or...

00:17:10It's a little darker in the booth,
but overall, it's the same smoothness,
and it's the same sound.

00:17:15But check out the guitar differences.
This is the side with gobos.

00:17:24Side, no gobos.

00:17:30The guitar just went far away.

00:17:33It's the same preamp, at the same
level, we didn't change anything.

00:17:36All we did is move the gobos.

00:17:38So the reflections are changing the
amount of guitar in the microphone,
versus the vocal.

00:17:42Even more so in the booth.
Check it out.

00:17:51As opposed to this,
outside, with gobos.

00:17:56Completely different sound.

00:18:02Think of it this way...

00:18:04Once you have a microphone position
you know and like,
move your singer around in the room,
or even switch rooms,
to adjust the balance between guitar
and vocal in the microphone,
using the reflections
from the environment to tweak.

00:18:17Now...

00:18:18Once you like that, you might
wanna try Omni,
because Omni is an interesting animal.

00:18:23You may or may not like it,
but it's very smooth. Check it out.

00:18:30More open, clearly.

00:18:41It's a very particular tone.

00:18:47Check this out.

00:18:48This is the part with the S's.

00:18:54As a reminder, in Cardio...

00:19:00Pretty crazy, right?
Omni...

00:19:06Cardio...

00:19:09This is the same position, in the same
room, in the same microphone.

00:19:13All we did is go "Click!"
And the Omni is much smoother.

00:19:17So you wanna try that
as much as you can.

00:19:20Sometimes it works,
sometimes it doesn't.

00:19:22The problem of course is you hear
more of the booth, more of the room.

00:19:26That's a question of choice,
it's your taste.

00:19:29If you ask me which take is best,
I don't know!
I know there's one I don't like
for sure, it's the middle close one.

00:19:35That one I will have to de-ess and EQ,
and compress,
and torture into a recording
if I had to make this a record.

00:19:41The other ones...
are all a question of taste.

00:19:44What would I do with them for mixing,
if you wanna call 1-track laydown mixing?
I would probably put
a tiny bit of reverb,
and a little bit of limiting,
so that it can be loud enough
to compete with the new
Britney Spears record...

00:19:56which I'm sure it can!
As a treat, we're gonna play you
the whole song as a music video,
because we love the song
and we thought you might like too.

00:20:05Et voilà!

Once logged in, you will be able to read all the transcripts jump around in the video.

Fab Dupont is a Grammy winning NYC based record producer, mixing/mastering engineer and co-founder of pureMix.net.

Fab has been playing, writing, producing and mixing music both live and in studios all over the world. He's worked in cities like Paris, Boston, Brussels, Stockholm, London and New York just to name a few.

He has his own studio called FLUX Studios in the East Village of New York City.

Fab has been nominated for Grammys 6 times, including two Latin Grammys and has received many other accolades around the world, including Victoires de la Musique, South African Music awards, Pan African Music Awards and US independent music awards.

Great stuff as usual Fab; the big room to the side was my preference for the vox but I would have tried dropping the mic a smidgen to get more guitar ; it gets lost for mine.
Another option which is not r exactly in the remit of the vid but none the less is useful is to add a dynamic ( 58ish) fairly close in to the vocalist and record that as a separate track to feed a reverb independent of the guitar. Could be used as the mic to keep the vocalist aiming forward if required.
The 2 sources /one mic ,no phase issues sound is very likeable for sure.
Thanks again, Ross

originart

2018 Mar 06

Great little illustration but promotes local realtors so we'll all build big enough spaces to keep the toys nearby ;-) (I have the mics, I have the outboard gear, I have the acoustic panels, I need the room!) :D

eignasiak

2017 Dec 14

I want a Julian Peterson!

viccieleaks

2017 Jan 25

Loved these videos

Dazz13

2016 Nov 27

Very good. I would have never noticed that many changes within the mic placement and yet would be the first to complain about the guitar and vocal 'not sounding like a proper guitar and vocal' so very insightful. Nice video and a great song too. :)
(P.S: Thankfully my Aston Spirit also has OMNI)

johnguacala

2016 Oct 29

Fab Thanks for share all your knowledge, is a real privilege the information that you and all the mentors share to the world of mixing.
I want to know what is the mic did you use.
Saludos desde Argentina!

purecountry70

2015 Aug 18

I have respected your Engineering for years , but everything you show and all the gears you use is for the pro , as well as gear that cost thousands of Dollars. I'd Like to see Videos that would be effective for the home recording Engineer. One of your Microphones probably cost as Much as all my gear , I just bought a new Console , ( well new for me ) a Mackie SR40 - 8 how can I make my Console more effective for me and my Studio

FacPhoto

2015 Jul 12

Great tutorial, love how the side-micing tamed the consonants. I liked the close side in the bigger room far better than the booth. Much more detail. Thanks fab, I think you´re an incredible recording engineer. Loved the recordings on the Joy Stelar session, great song too =)

Fabulous Fab

2014 Oct 08

@danielteo: the point was to practice the simplest possible mic technique and to learn the power of mic placement and the influence of the room on the sound. Look up Will Knox Gearfest videos for a two mic tutorial.

danielteo

2014 Oct 04

Why not one mic for the voice and another one for the guitar?

Uauker

2014 Jul 09

The whole song was recorded in the booth, right? Just filmed in the room?

PPLP_SMorse

2014 Apr 07

Great lesson! I love how you teach all the subtle (and some not so subtle) differences between all the variables. Today I have added so much to my bag of recording tricks. Thanks Fab, I feel my money is well spent on PureMix.

Fabulous Fab

2014 Jan 31

@Soundshigh: Nope. All flat.

soundshigh

2014 Jan 29

Thank you for this great tutorial, for introducing this great artist, and also for introducing this mic. It has the smoothest high end in a condenser. Was there any processing on the mic input?

Lupez

2014 Jan 22

guys you better check your hi pass filters next time, there is an awful of lower bottom end in the booth omni recording.

muchogordo

2013 Dec 31

This was awesome, Fab! I have really enjoyed the videos you have done with the single mic techniques. As an aspiring engineer, it is really easy to look at pictures of my favorite artists in the studio and think "I need more mics to make this good." The problem is, I never knew what the purpose of all those mics was until your lessons helped me understand what one mic does. I hope it doesn't offend you when I say that despite being a world class engineer, you are an even more world class teacher. Does that make you universe class? I digress. . . Thanks, man.

Some Guy

2013 Dec 29

One benefit of the side mic position wasn't mentioned by Fab but was demonstrated beautifully at the end - this position looks great on camera! Hard to capture a nice performance on video like that with microphones blocking the view. But with mic out of the face, well done! Clips to put on YouTube can be an important thing for a singer/songwriter, so visual aesthetics can actually matter.